Game Details

It's kind of a shame Super Mario World never got a proper sequel. After Nintendo successfully expanded and opened up the Mario formula with Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World refined its predecessor's concepts to create a 2D platform game that truly showed off the new Super NES, and it still stands as the peak of traditional 2D Mario titles. Yoshi's Islandbrought its own wonderful twist to that formula, but it wasn't really Super Mario World 2 no matter what the subtitle said.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find that New Super Mario Bros. U, the first real Mario title to launch with a home console since the Nintendo 64, is the best two-dimensional Mario title in decades, and the first since Super Mario World to really capture the appeal of the 8- and 16-bit classics that came before it.

Putting the pieces together

Part of the pleasure of playing is pure nostalgia. The return of long-forgotten enemies like Torpedo Ted and the tiny hopping Thwimp put a stupid grin on my face, as did watching the branching World Map grow and come to life as I beat levels, just like in Super Mario World. But the real strength here is the sheer inventiveness in the level design. Each new stage seems to introduce a wholly new concept from what came before: caverns with shifting floors and ceilings, castles with hanging metal chains used to swing over lava pits, sky levels where the floor is made of trampoline-like clouds, elevators with narrow paths through exposed electrical sparks, and an underwater level with an ever-present giant eel in pursuit. I was a particular fan of the maze-like Ghost Houses, most of which took me down multiple paths and dead ends before I found one of the exits.

It never feels like the game is just padding out the level count with a slightly altered repetition of a previous idea. Even the end-of-world boss Koopa Kids, which have often been barely distinguishable copies of one another in the past, each have their own unique attack style and personality this time around. Most of the enemies and concepts are familiar from old Mario games, but the new ways they're arranged here is nothing short of genius.

Enlarge/ Being a flying squirrel is actually a bit less fun than it looks.

Of the truly new introductions in New SMB U, the most significant is probably the flying squirrel suit, which I felt was a pretty weak addition to the ranks of Mario's flight items. Instead of really flying, the new suit lets you glide long distances, with a single mid-air boost into the sky once per jump (after which you have to endure an annoyingly slow drift down to the ground). The multicolored Baby Yoshis return for a few occasional appearances, acting as a great shield that eats any small enemies in your path. While I liked the red Yoshi's balloon-like floating abilities, the blue Yoshi's bubbles and yellow Yoshi's light-up effects were less compelling.

New Super Mario Bros. U is also one of the most difficult 2D Mario games Nintendo has ever created. While the first few worlds are easily manageable even by beginners, the challenge ramps up quickly after that. I consider myself something of a Mario expert, but by the game's last few worlds I saw my maxed-out total of 99 extra lives dwindle down to the low 60s as I tried to make difficult jumps and manage tight spaces filled with enemies. To be fair, I brought some of this on myself by trying to find and collect the three challenging hidden star coins in each level. Beginning players willing to ignore that temptation might have an easier time of things.

Outside of those coins, the levels are absolutely packed with hidden secrets, including coin-filled rooms, 1-ups, and hidden exits which unlock secret levels (there's even a nice twist on Super Mario World's Forest of Illusion, where players can easily get trapped until they find the hidden exit to the next world). Just rushing through to the end goal is kind of missing the point. The challenge continues after the game is complete with a surprisingly wide-ranging Challenge Mode. There's the requisite time trial race through selected levels, but there are also dozens of other tasks, including collecting (or avoiding) coins, earning 1-ups, or completing miscellaneous tasks under tight time limits.

As the first ever high-definition Mario title, New SMB U does a decent job of showing off the Wii U's pixel-pushing power, even if the 2D viewpoint kind of wastes the system's 3D capabilities. The bright, sharp, highly animated environments make it hard to go back to the Mario games on the Wii. The game is also fully playable on the touchscreen GamePad if the TV is being used by someone else. Truth be told, I often found myself looking down at the GamePad screen even when the TV was available. Despite the lower resolution, there's something nice about having such a large, bright screen so close to your face.

One control note: I was a bit annoyed that I couldn't use the Xbox 360-style Wii U Pro Controller to play the game. Holding the GamePad was comfortable enough, even for long periods, but using it requires keeping the touchscreen on, which drains the battery more quickly. You can play with a regular Wii Remote, but that means shaking the controller to do spin jumps, which is much more annoying than just tapping a shoulder button.

Boost Mode: New and improved multiplayer Mario

Somebody needs to have some blocks—glad that I'm here...

You can play New Super Mario Bros. U with up to four players on-screen at once, but the levels seem tuned particularly for a single player this time around. Things are generally manageable with two people playing together, but once three or four characters are on-screen, it starts to feel crowded really quickly. You'll find yourself accidentally bumping people off platforms, bouncing off a fellow player's head to your doom, struggling to squeeze into a tight space with your fellow players, or threatening to scroll other players off the screen when chasing after an item. The frustration tends to outweigh the happy chaos when large groups of varying skill levels are involved.

I had much more fun with Boost Mode, the new cooperative option that lets a player with the touchscreen GamePad help out by tapping away at the screen like an omniscient guardian angel. Most of the time this means placing temporary blocks that can be used as stairways to hidden goodies or protective platforms to prevent a fall into a pit, but tapping the stylus can help knock over enemies (or stun larger ones), temporarily freeze moving platforms, light up dark corridors, or reveal hidden "3-up moon" blocks that only appear on the touchscreen.

The new mode felt like a good balance between the limited second-player support in Super Mario Galaxy, where I felt like my star-shooting was barely having any effect at all, and the active co-op mode in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, where I constantly felt like I was getting in the way. Trying to coordinate how best to use these new abilities was a bit cumbersome at first, but after a short while I developed a sort of unspoken, sixth sense about where blocks were expected and needed, communicating without actually speaking. Eventually, you just sort of know what the other player needs almost before they do, and the other player can trust that you'll be there to catch them as they perform a trusting leap into the void. It's a connection that's put to the test in the Boost Rush mode, where you need to work together to collect coins and advance through an automatically scrolling level.

I'm not sure that this Boost Mode is really the killer app that proves the value of the Wii U GamePad, but it comes pretty close. Add it to one of the best designed 2D Mario games ever, and you have a package that ably serves the launch title role that Mario games have so often served in the past. While it probably doesn't justify a $300+ system purchase all by itself, New Super Mario Bros. U is sure to be a keystone in any game library for the system.

The Bad

The Ugly

Why is Bowser Jr. still around now that the Koopa Kids have returned?

Verdict: Buy It, but don't necessarily buy a Wii U just for it

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

66 Reader Comments

According to an interview with Miyamoto (I think, I'd have to search the Did You Know Gaming archives to find the link to it), the Koopalings are not actually Bowser's children. His only child is Bowser Jr.

Given your history, I believe the praise heaped upon the title in this review carries some extra weight. I am pleasantly surprised that they were able to retain what made the franchise great in spite of the recent blunders. While it may not be a 'killer app', I was concerned about the quality of the early titles - especially since the general feel I've seen is "nintendoland is no wii sports". This bodes very well for everyone with pre-orders.

Usually with these reviews there's a little blurb on the title's information (devs, prices, etc). While much of it is superfluous considering the brand, what's the launch price for the game?

Couple other random questions:What's the level time like, i.e. is it a game that can be picked up and digested in short bits and pieces, or does it require more lengthy time sinks?Is it more of an arcade style like the old ones or are there constant saves?Is there a storyline? (I don't expect it to...at least not really, but just curious)

Given your history, I believe the praise heaped upon the title in this review carries some extra weight. I am pleasantly surprised that they were able to retain what made the franchise great in spite of the recent blunders. While it may not be a 'killer app', I was concerned about the quality of the early titles - especially since the general feel I've seen is "nintendoland is no wii sports". This bodes very well for everyone with pre-orders.

Usually with these reviews there's a little blurb on the title's information (devs, prices, etc). While much of it is superfluous considering the brand, what's the launch price for the game?

Couple other random questions:What's the level time like, i.e. is it a game that can be picked up and digested in short bits and pieces, or does it require more lengthy time sinks?Is it more of an arcade style like the old ones or are there constant saves?Is there a storyline?

The price looks to be $59.99 for North America.I guess the days of $49.99 for first party titles are over.

So often the nit-picker, I. I have to disagree that SMW is the peak of 2D Mario games. I agree that it is a fantastic game that illustrates the SNES's expanded capabilities quite well, but I simply found the power-ups and level design much tighter in SMB3. I am of the opinion that SMB3 is really the pinnacle of 2D Mario titles.

That said, this new title looks pretty exciting, and what you say about it leaves me thinking it may actually be the game that sells the Wii U, at least among retro fans.

The price looks to be $59.99 for North America.I guess the days of $49.99 for first party titles are over.

I was surprised they lasted as long as they have, though with the wii one could argue development costs were appreciably less expensive than other consoles. Probably not the case anymore (depending on content)

All Mario has become in recent years is coins, coins, coins and extra lives galore. That's not fun. It's not challenging. When you can't even Game Over and can start right back where you were almost as many times as you want, well, maybe it's just me but I don't find that challenging. I yearn for the 8-bit style Mario games of olde, only revamped in HD, with those *real* challenging gameplay mechanics (by lack of them, in fact) intact.

I won't be buying a Wii U. My Nintendo days are done. If I want to play a good Mario game, I'll stick to the ones on NES and SNES. N64 if I feel like mixing it up.

The whole "coins, coins, coins and extra lives galore" thing has been present since SMB3. Well, the roots go back to the beginning, but in SMB3 and SMW it was very easy to rack up 99 lives and tons of coins... and then to lose them all. Kyle's review makes it pretty clear that this title really is a throwback to those older games, with challenge to boot. It kinda sounds like what you claim to want is, in fact, present in this game, and that those things you claim to dislike are minimized.

Pretty disappointed in the lack of Pro Controller support. In a game that supports playing exclusively on the GamePad controller in addition to the sideways Wii Remote configuration, there's no reason not to support the Pro Controller as well.

Getting the feeling that the Pro Controller is going to become a paperweight like the Classic Controller was for the Wii, at least if you play a lot of first party games..

I was planning on giving this one a skip due to "Mario Exhaustion." It's getting to the point that there's a new Mario game almost every year, and a lot of them are starting to show a lot of wear and loss of entertainment value (Mario Galaxay was fun, but WAAAAAAAAaaayyyyyyy too easy).

This has actually sparked my interest in the game though. If they can bring back, not just the quality, but the challenge of the classic Mario games, I'm all in. I grew up a Mario kid after all. I would like to see some Zelda and Metroid though (both of which I think would fit remarkably well with the tablet addition).

Overall I hope that Nintendo does well with the WiiU (even though their naming conventions need a LOT of work).

I am glad to hear that this is an improvement on the previous NSMB games. I haven't played NSMB2, but the other two games just felt extremely hollow, and for lack of a better word, fake to me. They felt like caricatures; playing them felt more like pretending to play a 2D Mario game.

The constant hand-holding is probably a big part of it. In NSMBWii, the game tells you how to play even while you are playing it. An icon of a shaking Wiimote appears over your character's head when he is able to pick something up; doors literally have an image of a directional pad with an up arrow to tell you how to enter them. It is also extremely annoying that Yoshi leaves you after a single level, apparently because the designers are afraid about what would happen if you took him to a level that wasn't "balanced" for him.

The a capella (sounding) music and the way the enemies occasionally "dance" to it is also very off-putting. At first it seems cute but soon I realized just how immersion breaking it actually is. In fact the entire art style and aesthetic seems almost more of a lighthearted joke than a sincere tribute. Personally I would have rather seen these games done in Super Paper Mario style, or actual pixel art.

It is an extreme comparison, but to some degree the NSMB games are to the old games as Yoshi's Story is to Yoshi's Island.

Still, NSMBWii was quite fun in multiplayer and I am looking forward to eventually playing the new one, whenever I happen to buy the system.

Kyle, I especially like that you bring up the 8-bit and 16-bit Marios. It is indeed high praise to compare this new game to them. I am curious if you've felt the same about the other NSMB games as I do and whether NSMB U is a significant change, or just more of the same (but otherwise improved).

Don't buy a Wii U for this game? I must confess that I had no interest in this game but hearing "This is as good as Super Mario World" sure puts me in the "Maybe I should pay attention to the Wii U" group.

Usually with these reviews there's a little blurb on the title's information (devs, prices, etc). While much of it is superfluous considering the brand, what's the launch price for the game?

Couple other random questions:What's the level time like, i.e. is it a game that can be picked up and digested in short bits and pieces, or does it require more lengthy time sinks?Is it more of an arcade style like the old ones or are there constant saves?Is there a storyline? (I don't expect it to...at least not really, but just curious)

The Game box is now there. Sorry I forgot it.

In response to your other questions:* Levels can take anywhere from a minute to five minutes if you're speed running and don't die. First time through, some of the harder levels took me 15 to 30 minutes after a lot of dying. It's gonna depend on your skill, really.* You can only save at the fortress and castle in each world, your first time through.* There is a minimal storyline that isn't even worth mentioning.

According to an interview with Miyamoto (I think, I'd have to search the Did You Know Gaming archives to find the link to it), the Koopalings are not actually Bowser's children. His only child is Bowser Jr.

Which brings up the next obvious question: who is Bowser Jr.'s mother??

...wait, how long does it take for Mario to save Princess Peach? I hope it's shorter than nine months.

I am glad to hear that this is an improvement on the previous NSMB games. I haven't played NSMB2, but the other two games just felt extremely hollow, and for lack of a better word, fake to me. They felt like caricatures; playing them felt more like pretending to play a 2D Mario game.

The constant hand-holding is probably a big part of it. In NSMBWii, the game tells you how to play even while you are playing it. An icon of a shaking Wiimote appears over your character's head when he is able to pick something up; doors literally have an image of a directional pad with an up arrow to tell you how to enter them. It is also extremely annoying that Yoshi leaves you after a single level, apparently because the designers are afraid about what would happen if you took him to a level that wasn't "balanced" for him.

The a capella (sounding) music and the way the enemies occasionally "dance" to it is also very off-putting. At first it seems cute but soon I realized just how immersion breaking it actually is. In fact the entire art style and aesthetic seems almost more of a lighthearted joke than a sincere tribute. Personally I would have rather seen these games done in Super Paper Mario style, or actual pixel art.

It is an extreme comparison, but to some degree the NSMB games are to the old games as Yoshi's Story is to Yoshi's Island.

Still, NSMBWii was quite fun in multiplayer and I am looking forward to eventually playing the new one, whenever I happen to buy the system.

Kyle, I especially like that you bring up the 8-bit and 16-bit Marios. It is indeed high praise to compare this new game to them. I am curious if you've felt the same about the other NSMB games as I do and whether NSMB U is a significant change, or just more of the same (but otherwise improved).

A lot of your complaints are still there... leaving Yoshi behind and the icons for how to do things among them. I didn't find these too annoying though, even though I did miss carrying Yoshi around. Overall, I'd say it's an improved version of the other New SMB games (which I was lukewarm on) more than a total reinvention

Don't buy a Wii U for this game? I must confess that I had no interest in this game but hearing "This is as good as Super Mario World" sure puts me in the "Maybe I should pay attention to the Wii U" group.

I read the review and thought "Dammit, don't make me want to buy a Wii U!"

SMW would rank in my top 5 all time favorite games ever, so this review is the first thing to really get me interested in the WiiU since since the system was first announced- not sure if I'm interested enough to buy a WiiU just for this game though. I do just wish it had the old standard 80s 2D platformer 2 player mode that is missing from most if not all modern platformers- where 2 players take turn playing and played until either they died or completed a level.

Speaking as an old timer who hasn't really thoroughly enjoyed a Mario game since SMW, I am very excite! I'm really looking forward to playing this next week. For some strange reason Nintendo has never been able to create a worthy successor to SMW. Here's hoping this is it.

According to an interview with Miyamoto (I think, I'd have to search the Did You Know Gaming archives to find the link to it), the Koopalings are not actually Bowser's children. His only child is Bowser Jr.

Which brings up the next obvious question: who is Bowser Jr.'s mother??

...wait, how long does it take for Mario to save Princess Peach? I hope it's shorter than nine months.

Mario Sunshine revealed that Princess Peach is Bowser Jr.'s mother. Meaning, she did it with an overgrown turtle then abandoned her lovechild.

I loved NSMBW, but I felt the visual design was somewhat uninspired. I do recall screenshots not really doing it justice, but this sequel appears even blander. The textures are detailed and the colors are bright, but it just seems uninteresting. I'm sure I'll play it and enjoy it immensely anyways, but it simply looks dull compared to, for example, DKCR.

Really what I want is a game that looks like the box art / instructions for SMB3.

According to an interview with Miyamoto (I think, I'd have to search the Did You Know Gaming archives to find the link to it), the Koopalings are not actually Bowser's children. His only child is Bowser Jr.

Which brings up the next obvious question: who is Bowser Jr.'s mother??

...wait, how long does it take for Mario to save Princess Peach? I hope it's shorter than nine months.

The first thing, the very first thing, that jumped out at me is the highlight on that pipe on the far left. They should have done a horizontal flip before rotating it CCW to keep the highlight on the top.

Unless it's intentional and there are meant to be groundlights there.</missing the point>

The graphics look better than what Nintendo has put out in the past, but the graphics also look like something that could have been done 10 years ago on the PS2 or original xbox. Next gen xbox/PS is going to leapfrog this system way too quickly.

According to an interview with Miyamoto (I think, I'd have to search the Did You Know Gaming archives to find the link to it), the Koopalings are not actually Bowser's children. His only child is Bowser Jr.

Which brings up the next obvious question: who is Bowser Jr.'s mother??

...wait, how long does it take for Mario to save Princess Peach? I hope it's shorter than nine months.

Mario Sunshine revealed that Princess Peach is Bowser Jr.'s mother. Meaning, she did it with an overgrown turtle then abandoned her lovechild.

So often the nit-picker, I. I have to disagree that SMW is the peak of 2D Mario games. I agree that it is a fantastic game that illustrates the SNES's expanded capabilities quite well, but I simply found the power-ups and level design much tighter in SMB3. I am of the opinion that SMB3 is really the pinnacle of 2D Mario titles.

I'm with Kyle, SMW was the pinnacle for me too. It holds up to this day of course, but if you were a gamer when it first came out it was incredible.